Wednesday, July 11, 2012 - DT 26850

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26850
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, April 26, 2012
Setter Ray T
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26850]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave
Big Dave's Rating
Difficulty - ★★	Enjoyment - ★★★★
Falcon's Performance ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - incorrect prior to use of puzzle solving tools █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by puzzle solving tools █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's blog

Introduction

My elation at having completed a Ray T puzzle unaided was somewhat dampened by seeing that Big Dave awarded it only two stars for difficulty.

Notes on Today's Puzzle

This commentary is intended to serve as a supplement to the review of this puzzle found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog, to which a link is provided in the table above.

1a   Workman’s top ass to raise extremes of excitement! (6,6)

In the UK, a donkey jacket^[5] is a heavy jacket which has a patch of waterproof leather or plastic across the shoulders, worn typically by building workers. You will also note from Big Dave's comments that, in Britain, one mends a puncture whereas in North America, one fixes a flat.

15a   Revered devout taking religious education by Catholic (8)

Religious education (abbreviation RE)^[10] is a subject taught in schools in the UK which educates about the different religions of the world.

23a   Unsophisticated French left (6)

This seems almost borderline as a double definition since the English meaning of unsophisticated comes directly from the French word meaning left.^[5]

26a   Figure United’s lost badly creating despair (5)

Manchester United Football Club^[7] (often referred to as simply United) is an English professional football [i.e., soccer] club, based at Old Trafford [football stadium] in Old Trafford [district of Manchester], Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League (the top level in the English football league system). United's arch rival is the Manchester City Football Club^[7] (City for short) which plays its home games at the City of Manchester Stadium. You may easily deduce from Pommers' comments on Big Dave's blog that he is an ardent United fan.

28a   Wife has terrible stew dish (5,7)

Welsh rarebit^[5] (also known as Welsh rabbit) is another term for rarebit^[5], a dish of melted and seasoned cheese on toast, sometimes with other ingredients.

1d   Dislikes of French when facing exams (7)

De is a French preposition meaning 'of'.

2d   Mug from hotel in New York (5)

Mug^[3,4] is British slang for a gullible person, especially one who is swindled easily.

6d   Sense of weariness from Sarkozy? (5)

Ennui^[8], a French word meaning boredom, has been adopted into the English language. This clue appeared in Britain less than two weeks prior to the May 6 French election in which now former French President Nicolas Sarkozy^[7] went down to defeat.

8d   Novel hero half lost on middle of Yorkshire moors (6)

I got caught way off base here — which explains why I could make no sense of the wordplay. I supposed that moors was used in the sense of attaching a boat to a pier, in which case BERTHS would be the obvious solution. Oops! I was to learn from Big Dave that moor^[5] is being used in another (very British) sense, a tract of open uncultivated upland, typically covered with heather — which is also known as a heath^[5].

Judging by the comments at Big Dave's site, I am not the only one to have found myself tied up at that pier.

16d    Daily show on Queen personality (9)

In Britain, char^[5] is another name for a charwoman^[5], a dated term for a woman employed as a cleaner in a house or office. As well, in Britain, daily^[5] (also called daily help) is a dated term for a woman who is employed to clean someone else’s house each day.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Ray T puzzle without a mention of his favourite band, Queen. By tradition, British monarchs use initials formed from the Latin version of their first name followed by either Rex or Regina (Latin for king or queen, respectively). Thus Queen Elizabeth's initials (or, in Big Dave's terminology, cypher) are ER^[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina.

18d   Hangs faction on board ship (6)

SS^[5] is the abbreviation for steamship • the SS Canberra.

Key to Reference Sources: 

^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)
^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)
^[4]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[5]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Dictionary of English)
^[6]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford American Dictionary)
^[7]   - Wikipedia
^[8]   - Reverso Online Dictionary (Collins French-English Dictionary)
^[9]   - Infoplease (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)
^[10] - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)

Signing off for today – Falcon